Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission

Sweet. Los Angeles officials are taking steps to commemorate the city's confectionery culture, just in time for Valentine's Day. Members of the Cultural Heritage Commission agreed Thursday to consider designating the original home of See's Candies, near Western Avenue and Beverly Boulevard, as a historic landmark. Nomination papers calling for recognition of the first See's candy kitchen and retail shop were filed at City Hall in an empty 5-pound See's box by candy lover Charlene Nichols.

With architectural photographer Julius Shulman helping to plead the case for the home of Dutton's Brentwood Books, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted Thursday to consider declaring the complex a historic-cultural monument. Four commissioners voted to follow a staff recommendation that the building warranted further investigation as a well-preserved example of mid-20th century California modern architecture.

The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted Thursday to recommend that the San Vicente Boulevard building that houses Dutton's Brentwood Books be designated as a historic-cultural monument. The matter will next be considered by the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, or PLUM, and then by the full council. After the 4-0 commission vote (with one abstention), about 50 supporters broke into cheers and applause in a 10th-floor City Hall hearing room.

Los Angeles' favorite cat seems to have nine lives. The three-sided "Felix" automobile dealership sign near downtown that has survived earthquakes, fires, riots and recession escaped another close call Thursday as the city's Cultural Heritage Commission voted to declare it a historic-cultural monument.

Re "It's your history, but it's our sign," Opinion, July 27 This article points out how a few people in a position of power can take over private property under the guise of "it's good for the city." The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission designated the Felix Chevrolet sign a historic cultural monument. It now has the cat sign in its bag without even having to pay a dime. The dealership's owners, the Holter family, cannot move or change the sign.

Re "It's your history, but it's our sign," Opinion, July 26 Darryl Holter misstated the role of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in approving historic cultural monument status for the famed Felix the Cat rooftop sign and showroom. The commission does not make the final determination on such designations: The Felix nomination still requires approval by the full City Council. Historic designation in Los Angeles also does not ensure that any building "will remain in place in perpetuity."

The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted Wednesday to grant historic status to an abandoned Pacific Electric subway tunnel and substation building near downtown. The decision is likely to allow a developer to break ground for a 276-unit apartment complex around the structures before the end of the year, while it thwarted a community group's alternative proposal for a public "graffiti art park" on the gritty Belmont Tunnel site.

The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission has proposed adding three sections of the Times Mirror Square complex downtown to the city's list of historic-cultural monuments. The buildings, headquarters of the Los Angeles Times, were built in 1934 and 1948 and are considered prime examples of the Moderne style as well as important symbols of local history, commission members said at a meeting Wednesday.

Imagine a Los Angeles where every movie studio had been replaced by more lucrative revenue-producing businesses, where the Venice canals were filled in to provide needed parking, where every department store had been torn down to provide sites for more efficient big retail outlets. The right legislation can preclude this dismal future. With the proposed destruction of one of Los Angeles' most important landmarks, the Cathedral of St.

Think about Los Angeles in 1960. Or rather, think of what Los Angeles did not have the year that John F. Kennedy was elected president. No Music Center and no Bonaventure Hotel downtown. No Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and no County Museum of Art in Mid-Wilshire. No saucer-shaped Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport and no Frank Gehry-designed houses in Venice. Today, those buildings are signatures of the Los Angeles landscape.